Labels: self released
Review by: Ciaran Power
Fast, dirty, screamy hardcore from a Birmingham-based band comprised of a guitarist, a vocalist and some electric drums. Doom Patrol is some heavy shit, with single-note lines being few and far between. After a silent intro, which we’ll call ‘suspenseful’, they get straight down to business in the opener, Campbell. Coming in at number four is Lie to Me, a cover of Tom Waits, but I’ll venture to say that you wouldn’t recognise it as such. The following song, Shame in Y’Game, provides some musical novelty in the form of a straight succession hammer-ons and pull-offs, with Jigsaw Youth instigating a minor change in pace by introducing more complex rhythmic patterns.
In terms of artwork, this release is pretty sparse, with an unlabelled CD-R and a folded sheet of A4 with information and a photograph printed in black and white coming inside a brown envelope adorned with a sticker reading ‘Doom Patrol’.
In short, this album is quite enjoyable as it is, but I’d have to say if it was maybe half an hour of this as opposed to ten minutes as it stands, I imagine my interest would wane a fair bit, being as the songs are so similar throughout. This record is best used sparingly. One thing I’d like to add is that they definitely don’t fall into the trap that a lot of Birmingham bands fall into, which is to have a vocal style sounding a lot like that of a large number of other bands in the city, which is not one that I’m particularly enamoured with.